Rock Hill Farms - high rye mashbill hits the perfect balance of elegance and fierce heat.

Today I'm drinking Rock Hill Farms - a single barrel bourbon bottled at 50% abv, by the fine people at Buffalo Trace.  Rock Hill Farms sports no age statement, and enjoys, apparently, the high rye "mashbill #2"used in such Buffalo Trace bourbons as Hancock President's Reserve, Blantons, Elmer T Lee, Ancient Age, and Virginia Gentleman.  I say "apparently" because there is very little information about this brand on the Internet.  On the topic of "mashbill #2", Jason Pyle's Sour Mash Manifesto says so.  So does StraightBourbon.com.  However there's no primary source that I can find.  There's also a dearth of information about the brand.  Why, "Rock Hills Farms"?  A clue to the name is found on the Lexington, Kentucky tourist site"visitlex.com": "As you enter Buffalo Trace you’ll notice the stone Rock Hill Mansion where Albert Blanton lived".   In the absence of firm information I'll just let the whiskey do the talking.  In the end that's all that matters anyway.

I believe the reports about the high rye mashbill #2.  The high rye mashbill really shows in the nose and on the tongue. 

Color: in the glass: new copper penny orange-red.  You can see it in the bottle too.  A lovely reddish bronze.

Rock Hill Farms bourbon is a lovely copper red color.

Nose: August and lean.  Acetone, honey, bitter orange and tropical fruits, herbal spice (cardamom?), pipe tobacco, plus a musty meaty note - black forest ham.  The nose is nuanced and opens over time, gaining depth, sweetness, and additional notes.

Entry is off dry with both corn and rye sugars gently showing at the end of the entry, which is quite reserved.  The texture is silky with a full mouth feel.  The midpalate expansion is rich with peppery herbal rye, honeyed sugar maple, sandalwood, black pepper, and plant sap.  This is a big flavor.  There's a tropical fruit aspect in this midpalate sugar and rye-spice medley.  I've seen it called "papaya".  It think it is more of a pineapple upside down cake with some banana and tobacco mixed in.  Sure enough, smokey savory notes join the black pepper and a cognac-like rancio in the turn to the finish.  Elegant, complex, and filigreed at the end.  There is oak, char, and sandalwood incense in the finish which is long and drying (but not unpleasantly so).  There are wood tannins which show up more as a feeling than a flavor.

Cool label is a plastic sticker.

There is a big round corn whiskey sweetness perfectly wedded to the heat, zing, and herbal notes of rye.  Unlike Wild Turkey's high rye mashbill offerings (which I love) which are more fruity and full, Rock Hill Farms is more lean and dry - an elegant balance that comes off as just right.  Hot and yet full of corn and rye sweetness; clean and yet wooded with all the little details of the flavors of the oak clearly delineated.  This is a complex and rich flavor profile that likes a lot of air time to open up.  I found the flavor required a full half an hour of airing in a Glencairn glass before it fully bloomed. 

This is a strong assertive whiskey.  For folks who love the richness of the bourbon flavor profile this will be treasured dram.  Folks who find bourbon a bit hot and strident will find this a bit much.  I'm definitely in the former camp.  This is in my top 10 regular issue bourbons.

*****

Value notes:  Rock Hill Farms is $44.99 at Shopper's Vineyard at the time of writing.  I've seen it as low as $38 down South.  It's 65 pounds in the UK.  This puts it at the higher end of the price scale for bourbons (For example 4 Roses Single Barrel is $32 at Shopper's Vineyard).  I'll state right now that this particular refined flavor profile is worth it in my book.  It has tough competition from the aforementioned Four Roses Single Barrel, as well as other fine bourbons in this price range such as Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit, Eagle Rare 17, Elijah Craig 18, and others.  However I find that Rock Hill Farms brings something different and valid to the table in its clean, elegant, semi-dry rye forward balance.  It stands its ground well at this price point in my opinion.

notice the cork on the decanter top, at left

Sealing 5 samples for the experiement

Carrying on the Value Whisky Reviews Open Bottle Shelf Life experiment.   

Ryan of Value Whisky Reviews / Value Bourbon Reviews started a fascinating series of experiments on the effects of oxidation and evaporation on whiskey left in open bottles.  Follow the link above to read his 3 posts on the topic.  The experimental methodology is to fill samples when the bottle is first opened and then compare them with the bottle over time as its contents oxidize.  I'll be performing these experiments on an ongoing basis.  Thus, when I opened this bottle I filled 5 two oz. sample bottles and will compare them with the remains of the bottle over time.  I'll be looking at mouth feel, aromatics, nose, and flavor and will use Ryan's five point scale of discernible affects.  I'll try to do comparison tastings at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and a year.  However, I must tell you right now that this bottle of Rock Hill Farms is never going to last a year.  At the current rate of consumption it will be lucky to last a week.